29 Jun 2018

Fruit trees restoring a forgotten way of life in Northland

From Nine To Noon, 9:42 am on 29 June 2018

Hundreds of citrus, feijoa, plum and apple trees are popping up in the rural settlements of Northland. ​

The planting is part of a rural regeneration plan to support Ngāpuhi whānau doing it tough in remote areas and help them eventually return to a culture of living off the land.

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Photo: Supplied

"Many of these whānau, located in deep rural situations, remember when their tūpuna, kaumātua and kuia grew a variety of food that augmented their living situation" Ngāpuhi Rūnanga housing coordinator Kara George tells Kathryn Ryan.

"The community thrived because the gardens thrived."

Fruit-growing was once a big part of the region's economy. George says.

"A guy called Samuel Baker, a missionary, bought some land in Waikare, which is in the Bay of islands. His family were fruiterers. And when he took over the land they set themselves up as fruit-growers exporting to all parts of Northland and even into Auckland."

But last century Māori started to drift away from the land.

"In the 1950s and 1960s as part of the government's move to have some of our people move to places in South Auckland, the "industrial drift" as it might have been called in those days, a lot of people left the land because farm subsidies were done away with and it was unproductive to stay."

Many older properties in the area fell into disrepair, George says.

"In the '80s, people started to go back to the land and a number of Māori Affairs Housing homes were built. Some of those weren't built that well."

The regeneration programme is also helping to provide critical housing repairs and clean water to people in need, she says.

There are leaking roofs to repair, sewerage systems and flush toilets to sort out, failed septic tanks to replace and hot water systems to be installed.

As more people drifting back to rural Northland from the city, housing has become scarce.

Homelessness is not just an urban problem, she says.

"There's not much accommodation to drift back to. Some of our people have moved back into these old homes and do just enough repairs to make them liveable.

"The face of homelessness in town you can easily see, but there is a situation in rural areas that is almost the same – people living seven or eight to a house. Some are couch-surfing in winter, crowded into homes, and in summer some are living in tents."

The fruit trees will provide kai for generations to come, George says.

"What we saw was if we actually planted fruit trees, you stick it in the ground and let it grow... basically, in two to three years' time you're eating fresh fruit. We've been delivering oranges, lemons tangelos mandarins, plums and apple. I guess we could call it an endless supply for the whānau."